Bzz!
Just as Lin Mo felt his heart jolt in alarm...
A faint streak of black-and-yellow light shot out of his sleeve, hurtling toward the source of the eerie aura.
"Venomous Thorn Bee?!"
Lin Mo was startled at first, then his face lit up with delight.
He had never imagined that the spirit insect the black-robed man at the Black Market had given him for free would be so sensitive to this eerie aura. It might actually prove useful!
Unfortunately, the Venomous Thorn Bee flew back and forth above the planting rows, seemingly finding nothing in the end, before returning to Lin Mo's sleeve.
For some reason, though, Lin Mo could clearly sense that the little spirit insect, which had only recently accepted him as its master, was utterly exhausted. Once back in his sleeve, it fell fast asleep, and nothing he did could wake it.
Even more astonishingly, Lin Mo felt that the eerie aura seemed to have faded a little. The soil was drying out more slowly, and the field no longer felt quite so sinister.
"The eerie aura hasn't been completely dealt with, and less than a tenth of the soil's spiritual energy remains..."
Frowning, Lin Mo stood where he was and continued observing.
Two hours, four hours, six hours...
By midnight, the eerie aura still had not reappeared, and the soil had stopped drying out.
Lin Mo scanned his surroundings. Only after confirming that no one was secretly watching did he take out the Treasure Gourd. He fetched a bucket from the edge of the field and poured ten drops of spirit spring water from the gourd into it.
"If even the spirit spring water doesn't work, then I'm really out of options... Hmm, ten drops should be enough."
Lin Mo took a deep breath, then stepped onto the ridge between the rows and began sprinkling the soil evenly with water.
The Treasure Gourd did not disappoint Lin Mo.
No sooner had he watered the soil than it began to change. The spiritual energy within it recovered at a rate visible to the naked eye. Even the air above the spirit field developed a thin veil of mist, its drifting wisps making the place resemble an immortal paradise.
More astonishing still, the spirit seeds sown just a few hours earlier broke through the soil, revealing fresh, tender green shoots and releasing the distinctive fragrance unique to spirit wheat seedlings.
"No, growing too fast isn't a good thing!"
Lin Mo's heart lurched. He hurried back along the ridges, pulling up seedlings as fast as he could, and uprooted every newly sprouted spirit wheat seedling in one go.
The Ghost-Crying Field, which had left even the sect master of the Azure Cloud Sect helpless, clearly posed no difficulty for Lin Mo.
Instead, the effects of the gourd spirit spring water far exceeded Lin Mo’s expectations. A single watering with ten drops of spirit spring water, even diluted, had brought about such astonishing changes!
"If the spirit wheat grows too fast, or too many seeds survive, it'll easily arouse suspicion."
Having learned his lesson, Lin Mo crushed some of the spirit wheat seeds completely before burying them, occasionally interspersing them with intact spirit seeds as he resowed the entire Ghost-Crying Field.
No more spirit wheat seedlings appeared.
The first batch of seedlings had absorbed most of the mysterious aura in the spirit spring water. What remained was enough for the second batch of spirit wheat seeds to grow normally without growing at a startling speed.
By the time he finished all his work, the sky had begun to pale. The ten mu of Ghost-Crying Field finally looked as a spirit field should, and the surrounding spiritual energy and the pale mist drifting everywhere gradually returned to normal.
"Ever since I watered it with spirit spring water, that eerie aura hasn't appeared again..."
Standing at the edge of the field and surveying the fruits of his night's labor, Lin Mo felt immensely satisfied.
Turning the Ghost-Crying Field from waste into treasure was nothing much in itself. He had merely overcome one deliberate attempt by Elder Gou Fengying of Spirit Beast Peak to make his life difficult.
Given the elder's position, he had countless ways to torment Lin Mo. This time, Lin Mo could only call himself lucky.
What truly excited Lin Mo was that he now had another kind of spirit plant.
Once he returned to his courtyard, he could immediately replant the spirit wheat seedlings he had just pulled up. Besides, they counted as normal losses from a failed attempt at cultivating spirit plants. No one could possibly grow suspicious over them!
"Gou Fengying, oh, Gou Fengying, thanks for these spirit wheat seeds. Heh heh."
With his work here finished for the time being, Lin Mo wasted no more time and headed straight back to his courtyard on the front slope.
It was still early. Thick mist shrouded the distant mountains, and dawn had yet to brighten the horizon.
Qin Sang Sang and Lin Xiaohe were still sound asleep, their soft snores rising and falling in turn. Apart from that, everything was silent and peaceful.
Treading lightly, Lin Mo went straight to the backyard, carefully prepared two planting rows, and planted a hundred spirit wheat seedlings from his Storage Bag.
Fewer than fifty drops of spirit liquid remained in the gourd.
Fortunately, these seedlings had already absorbed diluted spirit spring water. Lin Mo had no intention of wasting more, so he did not water them separately.
Much of the backyard, which covered roughly one mu, remained empty. Lin Mo did not fill it all, instead keeping more than half of the spirit wheat seedlings in reserve.
Of course, this was no waste.
Lin Mo intended to cultivate mutations in both the spirit rice plants he had planted earlier and the newly planted spirit wheat seedlings. Only his shortage of spirit spring water had forced him to set that plan aside for now.
Without spirit spring water, Lin Mo would rather not plant them. These spirit seeds had been hard to come by, and he had to make every single one count as much as possible!
"I can't neglect cultivation, either."
After briefly checking the growth of his spirit plants, Lin Mo returned silently to his bedroom and began cultivating the Evergreen Art.
Of course, he was not merely cultivating.
By now, Lin Mo had swallowed two drops of spirit spring water and eaten a raw mutated fire spirit fruit and a leaf of golden coin grass.
In the past, he would certainly have mixed the spirit spring water with the fruit before consuming them.
Only later had he realized that once everything was in his stomach, he would have to absorb it all anyway. There was no difference between the two methods!
One greater celestial circuit, then another...
Streams of pure spiritual energy raced through Lin Mo's meridians before flowing into the vortex in his dantian, becoming part of his own cultivation.
This continued until Qin Sang Sang and Lin Xiaohe got up one after the other and were about to knock on Lin Mo's door.
"Ngh..."
Sitting cross-legged in his bedroom, Lin Mo suddenly let out a muffled grunt, and a thin sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Something inside him seemed to loosen abruptly. Like water bursting through a broken dam, his spiritual energy completed ten greater celestial circuits in rapid succession!
"Late first layer of Qi Refining!"
Lin Mo's eyes snapped open. Though a faint pain from breaking through the bottleneck still lingered within him, he seemed oblivious to it, his face filled with excitement.
Had it been three months or four since he first entered Qi Refining?
With the Treasure Gourd's help, his utterly worthless five-spirit root was now no worse than an ordinary four-element spiritual root. His cultivation speed was even a little faster than theirs!
"Senior Brother Lin?!"
Hearing the noise outside his door, Qin Sang Sang hurriedly asked, "What happened? Do you need..."
She was an Outer Sect Disciple. Though she had become Lin Mo's little follower, she was still an outsider, after all.
Lin Xiaohe cared nothing for such things. The moment she heard Lin Mo's muffled grunt, she pushed open the door without a second thought and barged straight in.
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